Brain disease and the NFL

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NIH: Seau had debilitating brain disease

"In the NFL, yeah, we're making a lot of money. But the reality is, you're taking a chance on your life as well," he said. "People love to see someone get knocked out. But no one's there when they have a concussion."

He felt his worries were founded when he learned that star NFL linebacker Junior Seau -- who took his own life last May -- suffered from a neurodegenerative brain disease that can develop from concussions known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

At that point, Jones said he decided to donate his own brain to the Sports Legacy Institute -- which studies the link between sports and brain trauma -- for research upon his death.

Jones said he hopes that research will help bring more understanding of the brain disease so future football players are informed when they decide to take the field.

"CTE didn't just pop up. It's been around," he said. "But unfortunately it took a couple of big-name guys to take their own lives to bring attention to it."

Seven months after Seau's death, another NFL player's life came to a violent end, stunning the sports world once again and raising concerns about the mental health of football players.

On December 1, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend in the same home as their 3-month-old daughter before heading to team's practice facility, thanking his coaches, and turning his gun on himself.

Referencing a piece written by Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock, Costas said, "'Handguns do not enhance our safety, they exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.'

Jones -- who played with Belcher and owns a handgun -- said there's a much bigger picture to consider.

"I loved Jovan like a brother, but he did something terrible, horrible, and we can't take that back," Jones said. "But to segue into (saying there is) a gun culture in the NFL ... makes me sick to my stomach."

Jones started playing football at age 7 in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. The oldest of seven kids, he describes his childhood as a simple country life. He said his family was so big they had to make two trips to church on Sundays -- half the family at a time. And, sometimes the family went without basic necessities, including heat.

Jones stepped into a different world as a professional athlete after graduating from the University of Virginia, he said, a world that has brought good fortune but one that also leaves him contemplating the future.

Since retiring from the Chiefs last season, Jones turned his attention to letting people know that life after football also has risks.

He's hopeful that the NFL will create new ways to make the sport safer, but, he said, "Football is football, it's a gladiator sport. Unfortunately, that's part of the game."

Jones said he is creating his documentary series to give viewers an insider look at NFL players' lives without the helmet. In one scene, former NFL defensive end Adewale Ogunleye laments about his memory loss.

"I know my memory's screwed up at times, I know I be forgetting things," Ogunleye says. "I kind of laugh it off now, but ... I hope these concussions don't come back to haunt us in the end."

Through this documentary, Jones hopes he can shed light on the human side of professional football.

"Even though we can do superhuman things, it seems, on the football field, it doesn't make us superhuman off the field," he said.